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It's one thing to load up a movie plot with a mother's love, a father's death, the abuse of a child, a murder, great cooking, a struggle with cancer, family secrets, a touching performance of a flamenco ballad, the appearance of a benevolent ghost — in fact, everything but the kitchen sink.

It's quite another to make it all work without a bit of strain. And it's even more impressive if it works with rich humanity, unbridled satisfaction and even joy.

That's the considerable accomplishment of filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar in Volver, the Spanish master's latest and greatest film. The film, whose title translates to "The Return," is a guaranteed player at the upcoming Oscars.

By returning to her native Spain to perform brilliantly in Volver, Penélope Cruz vaults into the top ranks of international actors. She's Raimunda, the robust, caring mother at the center of the multi-layered story. Both the character and the performance convey the delightful earthiness and inherent wisdom of the women portrayed by Sophia Loren in her great Italian films for Vittorio De Sica.

Although no director has ever been as fascinated with and supportive of women as Almodóvar, in Volver he outdoes himself. Though the plot is fictitious, the characters are designed as a memory and tribute to the women in Almodóvar's childhood.

Besides Raimunda, the women of Volver include her teenage daughter (Yohana Cobo), her funny and not-especially bright sister (Lola Dueńas), a loving, longtime neighbor who is as close as a sister (Blanca Portillo), and the mysterious, deceased mother (Carmen Maura), who makes a ghostly return to her family. All the performances are memorable — and shared a rare best actress ensemble prize at May's Cannes Film Festival.

Nonetheless, two stand out — the aforementioned Cruz, who plumbs new emotional depths with maturity and heart, and the much-admired Maura (the star of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown). An early Almodóvar muse, Maura returns to the master after an 18-year estrangement.

The films of very few modern directors can be described simply with the filmmaker's name (like the Hitchcock films of yesteryear). But Volver can be. It's an Almodóvar film. And that makes it one of the best.